WilliamPS

Looking at the two teams tonight on paper it’s pretty wild they are both in the relegation zone and been so hopeless this year. Not saying they are good sides, just that they shouldn’t be this bad

What the confident lot don’t realise is that us worriers get double from each win - we get to enjoy the victory and the relief that it’s another game without the teams below closing in.

I like them now they’ve been beaten. Will like Arsenal, Leicester, Leeds and Brighton if they get beaten too

Funny, I remember the Cissé run of goals, the Enrique winds ups etc but that season didn’t ‘feel’ as good as this one - either as everyone knew it wouldn’t last or as it was too close to the years and years of regular European football

There’s only a handful a clubs that could tempt players the club want to keep - as opposed to players the club would be happy to sell at the right price (E.g. Shelvey wasn’t for sale but at the right price for him and the club he left). Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man City and maybe Bayern/PSG and that’s about it. If Newcastle are in the CL why would anyone go to Liverpool?!?

Gordon needs a goal, will help him get his decisions right

How bad can Lampard get away with being and still make it to the end of the season as manager?

One of Liverpool, Villa, Spurs or Brighton will pull a really strong finish together - not all of them will but at least one. So Newcastle need to get the 4 wins to do it, but in the 7 games it’s achievable

Not been watching them play recently but Chelsea playing such a defensive line up it looks crazy. 5 defenders plus kante, Fernandez and Kovacic, against Brentford at home?

Been remarkably lucky with injuries at the back this season, be crazy to let an experienced back up go. First thing the club would need to do if he left is replace him

Forecast is for rain, so expect a scrappy game where they try and drag it down The ideal scenario would be an early goal and some crowd frustration on their part. Basically give the home crowd nothing and make it a totally forgettable 90mins and I think Newcastle win comfortably

Have to hope Brighton win the cup really, but today ideally we see extra time and penalties to put as many miles in these players legs as possible

Are West Ham favourites for the conference? If they win it and get into the Europa league overall their season will end up a big success

If you’re worried about Villa I imagine you must be shitting it about Brighton!

England had Shaw and Trippier after Chillwell got injured Burn is simply not an England international level footballer. He is effective in the role he’s doing for Newcastle though. His limitations are well known and have been there all season (Man Utd away game for example), just when there’s a defeat it’s re-examined, when it’s a win it’s glossed over. Howe has accepted these weaknesses as part of his team selection as Howe sees the benefits of having Burns strengths as more important. There is no sudden realisation from opponents that a massive CB playing at LB is going to be exposed against pace

Arsenal may well be looking at a DM, for reasons… They are linked with Rice in the Times today - but that might be just because they’re playing each other.

I can see the subs bench winning it. Gordon and Wilson coming on at 60, as I’m not convinced by Joelinton and Murphy on the flanks will have enough. Now there’s options on the bench Howe has started to use them pretty effectively to change matches

Need two CMs that can step into the first team. Going to be unfortunate that Liverpool, Arsenal and Man Utd will also be looking at the same players. Id be amazed if Liverpool didn’t go in for Maddison.

Leicester need an outsider to change the atmosphere in the dressing room, but they may have left it too late Benitez did a great job at Newcastle- he was comically better than the managers either side of him. It was such a relief to have a professional in charge who sent his team out with a plan and incredibly well drilled after Mclaren and then we saw with Bruce what happens when you take that structure away again. However he’s coming to the end of his career, am not sure how it will work out at Leicester

City are nice to watch tbf. I don’t want City to win, but cannot bring myself to want Arsenal to beat them. all this is why Leicester winning was such a great story

One of the things the boffins have shown over the last couple of years is that the idea that safe mid table teams are easier to play than teams in relegation battles at the end of the season is false. The best gauge of how tough an opponent will be is the league table and the form table. teams scrapping for relegation are near the bottom as they’re crap, whether they’re trying or not

Hope Villa get a thrashing, but expect a v tough game. I hope Villa don’t get Europe as if they hadn’t had gerrard at the start they’d be right in the mix - better they fall short and struggle to bring in players Villa fans dislike of Newcastle shows that despite all their big talk they have a small club mentality.

Ultimately you have to get results against your rivals and that’s very much what spurs and Villa are now.

The bottom 3 won’t make 35 points so wolves just need one win, West Ham and wolves are close to sorted

Great win, great form which is great as it’s clear to get top 4 there’s going to need to be a lot more of them. Think need four points from the next two games